Fruit-evaporator.



W. M. LUTHER.

FRUIT EVAPOBATOR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.26.1913.

Patented Mar. 16, 1915.

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W. M. LUTHER.

FRUIT EVAPORATOR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.26.1918.

Patented Mar. 16, 1915.

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- each other, each tray being supplied inde- Be it known that I, WXLLIAM M. LUTHER, a citizen of the United fitates, residing at Spokane, in the county of Spokane and State of Washington, have invented new and useful Improvements in hruit-Evapo raters, of which the following is a specification'.

This invention relates to improvements in fruit evaporators pertaining to that class of devices wherein a plurality of trays containingthe fruit are arranged in superposed and suitably spaced relation with respect to provide means whereby the steam supplied for each of the trays or sets of trays may be regulated independently of the supply of any other trays'or sets of trays.

Another object ofthe invention is to provide an eva orator wherein the means for regulating the supply of steam are readily accessible from the outside of the evaporator casing.

Another object of the invention is to girovide an evaporator witha plurality of red:-

ators in relation to each tray or set of trays and to provide means in each of said radiatorsfor heating certain portions of' the trays or set of trays to a degree difi'erent causing the same again to fiow downwardly from other portions of the same tray or set respectively, or different from the degree to which other trays or sets are heated.

Another object of the invention is to provide means in an evaporator for causing a circulation of the air by heating the air and cooling the same after the heated air has risen to a certain portion of the evaporator, the decrease in the temperature of the air and to be reheated;

Other features of novelty of the invention will be more fully described in connection with the accompanying drawing and will be more particularly pointed out by the appended claings. i Inthe drawings Figure 1 1s a front elevation of the evaporator, Fig 2 is a side Specification of Letters retest.

trays and the rear Wall Patented Mar. to, 1915.

Application filed. Noveniiier 26, 1918. serial ho. 803,158.

elevation of the same, Fig.3 shows a vertical section on line 3-3 of Fig. l, and Fig. 4 1s a horizontal section on line H of Fig. 3'.

'lheevaporetor COIIlPl'i-iwis a casing 1 provided in one of the walls with a plurality of doors 2 which are adapted to swing on h nges 3 and which also may be provided with windows to facilitate the inspection of the interior of "the casing without necessitatmg an opening of the same. A plurality of trays 5 are suitably supported within the casing and are spaced from each other. The depth of the casing is somewhat larger than the length of the trays 5 whereby an interspace 7 is left between the rear end of the 6 of the casing.

in the embodiment illustrated in they accompanying drawing the trays are arranged in sets of two and a radiator 4 is located underneath each set. A. chamber 8 provided in the casing 1 below the-lowermost of the sets of trays contains radiators 9 and these radiators are disposed above a drip pan'10 adapted to collect the juice which drips from the fruit in the trays. The chamber 8 near thebottom of the casing mostly serves the purpose of super heating the contents of the casing and this chamber is separated from the interspace 7 by a partitioned wall 11 provided with a damper 12. A handlel3, as shown in Fig. 2, extends from the damper to the outside of the casing and serves to permit of an adj ustmeht of the temperature from the outside of the evaporator. Aasiniilar damper 14 may also be disposed in the front wall of the. casing underneath the trays to regulate the entrance of fresh air into the chamber 8. The damper 14 may be adjusted to nroper osition by means of the rod 15 projecting;

roni said damper to the outside of the eas-' ingras shown in Fig. 2.

. he superheating chamber 8 is normallv closed. The dampers l2 and l-l are 0:11: opened when it is desired to admit fresh air or to induce a draft through the lower portion of the evaporator. The dri pan 10 in the superheating chamber may e removed through the doors 16 in the partition wall 11 and through the door 17 in the rear wall 6 of the casing.

The interior of'the casing is in communication With an extension 18 wherein a plurality of pipes 19 are locatedsaid pipes a plurality of additional serving forconveying any suitable cooling medium'through lfhe extension-18. A drip 23, regulating valves 28 being interposed between the manifolds and the radiators.

After the passage ofthe heating medium through the radiators the medium is discharged into the pipe 3% which is connected with said radiators by means of manifolds 24, 25, 26', 2'3 the connections between the manifolds and the radiators also containing suitable regulating valves 28 as may readilybe seen from Figs. 1 and 4:.

From the above it Wlll be readily under- I stood that-a heating medium to the influence of which the trays or different sets of trays may be exposed may readily be regu- -lated from the outside of the evaporator with respect to each tray or set of trays respectively without necessitating a similar regulation with respectto any of the "other trays or sets of trays. By reference to Figs; 3 and 4 it 'will be noted that the radiators, comprise a plurality of heating coils of different cross-section. The coil 30 located near the front wall of the casing has larger cross-section than the remaining coils of the same radia-- tor, said other coils eing indicated at 31 and by reference to Fig. 3 it will also be noted that the radiator heating the top tray comprises a heavier heating coil 30 and a heating coil 33 of smaller cross section than the heating coils 31 which act'in the trays below the top tray. The heating coil 31 comprises pipes having a cross section of approximately three fourths the size of the pipes in the heating coils 30, while the pipes 33 in the top section will be approximately half the size of the pipes'in the heatin coils 30. The discharge main pipe 34pm erably is connected to a steam trapy35, shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing.

. The air in the casing will be heated when steam is admitted to the-different radiators and at the same time this air will become saturated with the moistureevaporating. fruit. .The heated air being 'spe from the V I cifically li hter than cold air has a tendency to rise an will flow from the interspace between the difierent trays to the interspace 7 between the trays and the rear wall 6 of the casing. This air therefore will flow upwardly in direction of the arrows as indicated at 4.0. When the heated air comes into contactwith the cooling pipes 19 the moisture in the air will condense on these suitable source, not

' the evaporator and pipes and will drip into the pan 21 which is located in the extension 18 of the casing. The direction which the moisture will assume in this extension after the contact of the air with the pipes is indicated by the arrows ll in Fig. 3/ The air having been cooled by its contact with the pipes 19 has a tendency to flow in downwardly'direction and is deflected by the rising air flowing through the interspace 7 so that the cooled air will travel in the path indicated by the arrows 42. The cooled air will pass down through the front of the evaporator and in its movement downwardly it will again be heated on account of the contact with the relatively large radiator coils 30 and will flow upwardly again after'having been saturated with the moisture from the fruit.

- In the dehydration of fruit, it is frequently desired to subject one kind of fruit low temperature when first introduced into the temperature should be raised gradually during the dehydration. This gradual increase of temperature may be effected in the present device either by an adjustment of the valves 28 on the outside of the casing 1 or it may be effected by transferrin the fruit after the same has been heate for a certain period of time in ,one of the lower trays to the upper part of the casing. If the operator desires to continuously observethe effect of the heat on the fruit, he maydehydrate the fruit by ad-.

justing the valves 28 of all of the radiators successively, so as to gradually admit a larger amount of heating medium into the diiterent portions of the casing. He may also regulate the dehydration by adjusting the valves at the top to admit less steam or other heating medium than in the other per;

tions of the casing and without varying the.

position of the valves, transfer the fruit primarily subjected to the action of the heating medium near the top of the casing l to another portion of the casing after t e fruit from said other portion has been removed. The valves 28 and 28' enable the operator to control at any time absolutely the admission of heat to any portion ofthe casing and to effect thereby a dehydration in accordance with the requirements necessary for treating difierentkinds of fruits. i {The effect of the circulation upon the fruit willbe that the moisture laden air isgradu allyfremoved from the contact with the.

fruit and the dehydration therefore may. be continued to a much higher degree than was possible in devices used up to the present time. The circulation is accelerated by means of radiator coils 30 which-are of larger size than the other, radiator coils as they come intocontact with the air after the ,steam or other heating same has been cooled by the pipes 19. The top portion of the casing is heated to a higher egree than the remainder of the same as the heated air continuously rises and for this reason the radiator coils in the upper portion are of a smaller size than the coils in the lower part of the evaporator. The action of the rising air on the fruit to be dried has a suction edect on the moisture, a vacuum being produced which will quickly extract the moisture from the fruit.

It is obvious that a plurality of evaporators may be connected with any source of medium in the form of batteries and a connection of the several evaporators may easily be made by extending the steam pipes which convey the heating medium to the interior of the casing.

While I have herein shown and described one specific embodiment of my invention I do not wish to be limited thereto except for such limitations as the claims may import.

I claim 2- l. A. fruit evaporator comprising in combination a casing havinga front and rear wall, a plurality of trays in superposed relation supported within the casing between said walls so as to leave an interspace between said walls and the trays, a condensing chamber in communication with the casing, means for supplying a heating medium to said trays, the rear walls of the casing being adapted to direct the heated air toward the condensing chamber, there being formed between said uppermost tray and the top of said casing an air channel whereby the air after having been cooled isreturned to the front end of the trays.

2. A fruit evaporator comprising in combination a casing provided with front and rear walls, a plurality of trays supported Within the casing between said walls and so arranged as to provide an interspace between themselves and thefront wall, means for heating the air within the casing, a condensing chamber above said trays and communicating with the casing, said rear Wall being adapted to direct the heated air into the condensing chamber and the casing be ing so arranged that the air after having been cooled and dried in the condensing chamber is returned to the interspace between the front end of the trays and the front wall of the casing.

3. A fruit evaporator comprisin in co1nbination a casing provided with a ront and rear wall, a plurality of horizontally disposed steam coils contained within said casin superimposed trays supported Within said casin intermediate said coils, the rear of said coi s and trays spaced from said rear.

t F I 0 I I wall, the intermediate space extending the entire height of said casing and adapted to receive heated air, a condenser secured adjacent the top of saidspace and adapted to receive said heated alr, means for said heated air, and means for returning said cooled, dried air to the front of said casing, said means consisting of a space formed intermediate the uppermost tray and the top of the casing and extending to the front wall, substantially as described.

a. A fruit evaporator comprising in combination a casing including its complemental front, rear and side walls, a cooling chamber formed adjacent said rear wall and. extending beyond the top of said casing, an intermediate wall contained within said casing adjacent said rear wall, a condenser positioned between said rear and intermediate wall below said cooling chamber, a series of horizontally disposed steam coils provided in said casing, at least one tray positioned intermediate each coil, the rear of said coils and trays serving to form with said intermediate wall, an air chamber adapted to guidethe heated air into said cooling chamber, and'means for forcing said cooled and dried air toward said front walh said means consisting of a space formed intermediate the uppermost tray and the top of the casing and extendin to the front wall, substantially as described.

5. A fruit evaporator comprising in com bination, a casing including its complemental front, rear and side walls, a series of horizontally disposed coils contained within said casing, at least one tray positioned intermediate each coil, an intermediate wall cooling extending to the uppermost tray and spaced from said rear wall and the rear of said trays and coils adapted to form a hot'air channel, and a condenser positioned between said walls, a cooling chamber positioned above said casing and condenser and a return air channel formed between said uppermost tray and the top of said casing, said heated air being received in said cooling, chamber and the dried cool air guided through said air channel toward and down the front of said casing, an auxiliary heating chamber positioned adjacent the base of said casing, and means adapted to regulate the amount of air received and heated by said auxiliary heating chamber.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM M. LUTHER.

Witnesses HAROLD Scim'rnnannr, EDNA Bnoms. 

